In many enterprises, a significant number of printers may be provided and used for producing hardcopy documents. Typically, these printers are connected to a network that also connects to a variety of printer clients that may need to submit a print job to a printer. In this way, a particular printer can be shared by a number of users to maximize the value of that printer. Additionally, a number of different types of printers can be made available to the users of the network. Another advantage of using printers through a network is that a user can select a different printer if the printer closest to that user is unduly busy serving other users.
With such a distributed printing environment, it can become difficult to ensure that each printer is adequately supplied with consumables such as paper and toner or ink. In some enterprises, the various printer units may experience particularly heavy usage making it even more difficult to keep the printers supplied with consumables. Additionally, the more widely distributed the physical locations of the printers on the network, the more difficult it will be to keep the printers supplied with consumables.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.